


A Single Joyful Moment

by attic_gremlin



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Dancing, Folk Music, Gen, Linked Universe, LinkedUniverse, fiddle - Freeform, linkeduniverseau, this is so self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 09:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attic_gremlin/pseuds/attic_gremlin
Summary: “It looks like Twilight’s finally finished fondling his fiddle,” Legend said, prompting a laugh to ripple through the group. “Why don’t you play us somethin’, country boy?” A challenge glinted in Legend’s eye.Twilight laughed and flourished his bow. “Sure, thing, city slicker. I know just the jig…”





	A Single Joyful Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [duet of dimensions](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18603091) by [nerdiests](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiests/pseuds/nerdiests). 

> Oops I was supposed to be doing homework and I accidentally wrote 1500 words.
> 
> Basically I've been fixating on this AU on and off for months now and I'm starting to run out of content, so I had to take matters into my own hands.

It had all started when Twilight had nonchalantly drawn a violin case from his pack. He hadn’t touched the thing in ages, and the delicate instrument was in desperate need of attention. Although he had tried to be subtle, however, Wind’s attention had instantly been pulled from the story Warriors was trying to tell him to stare at Twilight as he clicked open the case and withdrew the instrument inside. Heedless of Warrior’s story, Wind called out over the campfire: “Hey Twi, I didn’t know you could play an instrument!” 

Immediately, the group’s attention was drawn to Twilight, who instinctively put a protective hand on his instrument. “Oh, yeah.” Twilight replied, a bit put off by all the attention suddenly focused on him. “I guess it just never came up.” He said.

His gaze dropped back to his fiddle as he continued to clean it with a soft cloth.

Four was the first to break the silence. “Can’t most of us play something?” He asked over the sound of Wind begging Twilight for a concert. 

Legend couldn’t hold back a laugh at that. “What do you play Four, an Ukulele? It’s just about small enough for you,” he teased with a sly smirk.

“Ha, ha,” Four drawled, unable to suppress the smile betraying his annoyed tone. “I’ll have you know that I’m not half bad on the marimba.”

“You sure you didn’t mistake a glockenspiel for one of those?” Legend choked out, his words tripping over his amusement. He decided that the smack he earned from Four was absolutely worth it, and he collapsed into giggles over his own joke.

Four, still fighting a smile, looked over Legend’s hunched form to glance at Wind. “What about you, kiddo? You seem pretty excited about Twi’s piece. Do you play anything?” he asked, mercifully drawing Wind's attention away from Twilight, who send a look of gratitude Four's way.

Wind scrunched up his face. “Not exactly an instrument,” He said, pulling out the Wind Waker from his bag, “but I can conduct!” 

“And I can play the flute pretty well!” Hyrule chimed, pulling a wooden flute from his bag. It was the picture of rustic, with a leaf still attached to a twig poking off the end. 

Hyrule and Wind took a moment to admire each other’s tools, when a glint caught Hyrule’s eye from across camp.

“Hey Sky, is that a harp?” he asked, jolting Sky out of a daydream; all the talk of instruments had reminded him of his own, which had brought his thoughts back to Zelda, as always. 

“Actually it’s a Lyre,” Sky replied softly, revealing the holy instrument fully. “A harp is much larger. It’s an easy mistake to make, though!” 

Wild’s eyes widened in recognition. “I think Zelda can play one of those!” He exclaimed. “She never was very good at it, since…" he trailed off, remembering what little he knew about Zelda's education. "Well, she wasn't very keen on learning in the first place." He finished lamely, unwilling to elaborate on Zelda's many attempts to unlock her sealing powers.

Time’s voice brought him out of his thoughts:

“What about you, Wild, do you play anything?” he asked, his firm voice interrupting his downward spiral. 

“Well…” Wild put a finger to his chin and thought for a moment. He didn’t remember anything he might’ve played before his 100 year nap, but… “A friend of mine taught me a little electric guitar.” he offered. 

Silence fell over the group. 

“How the hell can a guitar be electric?” Legend finally exclaimed, baffled. “Wouldn’t you get shocked whenever you touched it?”

Wild grinned at the misunderstanding.

“No, of course not!” he laughed, fiddling in his sheikah slate to show them. “It’s not electric in the way that monsters can be electric, it’s actually something a friend of mine, Purah, invented out of sheikah tech. See, when you play a note on a normal instrument, the vibrations create sound by virtue of the nature of the instrument itself. An acoustic guitar uses its hollow body, for example. But with an electric guitar, the movement of the strings is detected by a device made up of tiny wires wound around magnets. The magnets pick up the movement and send it through some circuits and eventually to a cable. The cable then sends the signal to an amplifier as an electric current, where it’s finally converted into sound-- and really loud sound, at that!”

When Wild finally found the object and pulled it from his slate, he looked up to see… eight absolutely befuddled heroes. His face reddened.

"I'm sure Purah can explain it better than I can, we can go see her next time we're uh… in the neighborhood." He muttered, embarrassed.

“I’ve seen weirder!” Warriors said eventually, shrugging casually. 

“Yeah,” Four agreed, “The old man’s ocarina is more confusing to be honest.” 

Time just laughed and placed a hand on the blue ocarina glinting on his belt. “Ain’t that the truth!” he exclaims, sending a chuckle rippling through the group. 

As Wild put away his strange contraption, Wind turned to Warriors. “What about you then, Warriors? What do you play?” 

Warriors smiled confidently and puffed out his chest with pride. “Well actually, my instrument is my throat,” he proclaimed proudly, stoically ignoring a rather lewd comment from Legend’s general direction, which was accompanied by a chorus of amused snickers.

“You sing, then?” Four asked from Legend’s side, suppressing a smile for Warriors’ sake. 

Warriors harrumphs. “Yes I do,” he says. “I’ve been a member of Hyrule’s Royal Chorus since I was seven years old.”

“Wow, that’s not much younger than Aryll is now!” Wind gasped. Warriors preened under the attention.

“That just leaves you, Legend.” Hyrule said, scooting closer to his predecessor. “Do you play anything?”

The group fell silent, curious to hear the answer; they had all caught glimpses of Legends rather impressive collection. Legend crossed his arms and coughed, refusing to meet Hyrule’s expectant gaze. “Well, yes I do.” He finally said, uncharacteristically quiet. He stood up to their curious eyes for a few heroic seconds, but eventually broke. He sighed and started counting on his fingers:

“I play the ocarina, the lyre, the cello, the horn, the bell, the harp, the marimba, the organ, the drum, the tambourine, and the triangle.” Legend paused for air as he waited for the group to react, his gaze fixed on his boots.

“That’s amazing, Legend!” Hyrule finally exclaimed. “Where’d you learn all that?” 

Legend's ears went pink and he shrugged. “On my travels, of course,” he replied simply. He heard Four mention something about a marimba Quintet, but it was drowned out by the din of eight impressed heroes showering him with compliments. 

“Anyway,” he went on loudly, desperately wanting to draw attention away from himself. The rowdy heroes quieted down to listen. 

“It looks like Twilight’s finally finished fondling his fiddle,” Legend said, prompting a laugh to ripple through the group. “Why don’t you play us somethin’, country boy?” A challenge glinted in Legend’s eye.

Twilight laughed and flourished his bow. “Sure, thing, city slicker. I know just the jig…” 

As Twilight started to play, a buzz of energy spread through the group. The song he played started slow, but quickly grew faster, and more energetic. Feet started tapping almost instantly, and soon enough, all eight heroes were clapping along to the beat. 

Suddenly, and without warning, Legend grabbed Wind by both hands and leapt to his feet, pulling their youngest with him. With a grin and a glint in his eye, Legend whispered something into Wind's ear, who gasped happily as he caught Legend’s intention. 

Soon they were off, circling the group in a simple but energetic two-step, Wind's face split with a beaming smile as Legend spun him around the campfire.

Hyrule laughed jovially and stood up as well, offering a hand to Four. The smallest hero yelped happily when he was yanked to his feet the moment he accepted Hyrule’s hand. Although he struggled to keep up with Hyrule’s unfamiliar dance at first, once he got the hang of it, Four seemed to take to square dancing rather well.

Eventually everyone was up and dancing, clapping along with the song’s beat where they could. Sky had been swept off into a fast-paced waltz by Warriors, (and somehow ended up leading,) leaving only Time and Wild remaining. The two were happy to simply link arms and start skipping in a circle, laughing together until they became too dizzy to stand.

All too soon, Twilight’s song drew to a close, and all nine heroes collapsed on the ground, breathless lungs burning with joy and exertion. Slowly, the group regained their breaths, not a face among them absent of a beaming smile.

As the nine heroes helped each other to their feet, talking and laughing and applauding Twilight’s playing, each one took a moment to breathe deeply and acknowledge their gratitude; under the circumstances, a night like this was hard to come by. So, in the light of the fire, under the glow of starlight, nine heroes sent up a silent prayer of thanks, grateful for the joyful moment that not one among them would ever forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to nerdiests for writing duet of dimensions which is where Twilight playing the fiddle (as well as a couple other instrument choices) came from and also Jojo56830 for making the LinkedUniverse AU which is where pretty much everything else came from.
> 
> If you haven't read the LU comic, then I don't know why you're reading fanfiction for it, but it's really great! You should go check it out on tumblr and/or instagram and leave jojo some nice comments.


End file.
